Can you make a candle? A nail? A light bulb?

Mar. 29, 2012

I find myself asking deeper questions about civilization and the journey of food as I explore local options. There is a “locavore myth” I sometimes encounter that believes a man can make everything he needs and still live within this society. I have a hard time seeing that.

Some products have achieved such a commodity status, that making them yourself is almost unthinkable. Much of our society is like that, though. James Burke’s classic television program, “Connections” covered this ground back in the 1970s. So did Terry Nation’s 1975 science fiction television series “Survivors.” “Nation” is better known for inventing Dr. Who’s Daleks, but his grim “Survivors” series is a real gem of science fiction, meeting this interface of society and survival head-on.

A scene in that series has a character facing life after plague has wiped out most everyone else. Abby hasn’t yet come to grips with the new world and another character points this out by asking, “Could you make that?”

Pointing to a candle he asks “What is that made of? Even if you know, can you make it from scratch? What about glass for a light bulb? What about a hammer? Nails?”

Technology makes us wholly dependent on each other at a very fundamental level. Even our frontier ancestors sat at the end of a long chain of manufactured “things” that made their “independence” possible, from moldboard plows to steam engines.

About the only choices we get are in how the resources get used. Sometime I encounter locavores who have reduced that choice to simply deciding what to consume. It’s something to chat about over a beer.

In fact, beer is an excellent example. It has always been a community effort since the earliest days of agriculture.

The home-brewing community overflows with the kind of locavores I love. For them, producing your own is about education, exploration and a better product. I’m sure for a few the process is entered into with the grim determination of pure independence, but I have yet to meet a grim brewer. They usually explode with hospitality.

You simply can’t make a beer without a lot of community. Tools, yeast, barley, and hops almost always come from someplace else. You learn the craft from others. It is generally an efficient system, though. You move the dry ingredients and add the bulky water last.

Luckily for us, there is an excellent local resource for all those little bits you need to brew your own. Next week, we’ll talk with Home Brewery in Ozark.